


A Dream In Me

by poisontaster



Series: Every Broken Thing [23]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ficlet, Healing, M/M, Post-Season/Series 01, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sibling Incest, selective mutism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-06-06
Updated: 2006-06-06
Packaged: 2018-05-12 11:03:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5663851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poisontaster/pseuds/poisontaster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Slowly, Dean's coming back to himself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Dream In Me

"Tell the waitress I want pancakes," Sam says, sliding sideways out the booth. "No butter, double syrup. And milk."

Dean raises an eyebrow at the milk, but he waves Sam off. Although he's talking again, he's still a lot quieter than he used to be. Sam has to tell himself a lot that it's getting better. _Pretty soon, I'll be bitching about the fact he never shuts up_ , Sam thinks.

He fakes back towards the bathroom, but he really doesn't have to go; this is another one of their 'issues', like Dean's silences, like the ghost of their departure from Missouri's house. They're _not_ back to normal yet. They're not back to _them_ yet, and the change, the damage it covers _aches_ like the rest of their spanky new scars.

Sam sighs, dropping a quarter and dime into the battered newspaper machine out in front of the restaurant. They're running out of cash fast; if they're going to stay, he needs to look into some kind of part-time job or something. He refuses to think further than that—a stop-gap measure, temporary. Just until. The morning is overcast and bitterly cold; he's shivering, especially since he left his coat inside with Dean. He grabs the paper inside with fingers already going numb and hustles his skinny ass inside.

The look Dean gives him when he slides, shivering, back into the booth shows him that Dean wasn't in the least fooled. Dean's eyes are tired and still slightly lunatic, bloodshot because he doesn't sleep for more than a couple hours at a time, lurching up out of dreams he won't talk about and afterwards, holding onto Sam so tight that Sam can't move.

Sam puts the paper on the table between them and makes a show of leaving idly through the pages. "You put my order in?" he asks, falsely nonchalant.

"Even the milk, though it hurt my heart to do it," Dean answers, fiddling the salt and pepper shakers in an awkward and clumsy waltz around each other. He's avoiding Sam's eyes.

"You want a section?" Sam pretends to scan the headlines, even though he can't really see any of them, his heart beating too hard and all his attention more on his brother than anything else.

"No."

Sam swallows and doesn't say anything else. When Dean's ready, he'll be ready. Sam can't…force him into it. Their breakfast comes quickly and Sam eats his pancakes mechanically, still worrying at the problem.

Dean wants to go visit the Oliveras—Gervese, Olivia and Natalia—so they do, and Sam is press-ganged into a second breakfast of chili-flavored eggs and chorizo on warm corn tortillas. He enjoys them a lot more than the pancakes, ironically enough, although he feels like he's waddling away from the table afterwards.

Olivia scolds Dean for not sleeping and Gervese shows him a new shipment of moldering spell books and palimpsests he bought in an estate sale a few days ago. "How is he?" Gervese asks quietly and Sam shrugs, loathe to admit Dean's weaknesses even to as trusted friends as these.

The day is slow and leisurely and after a while, Dean relaxes enough to laugh and talk—mostly to Natalia. They stay long enough that they are further dragooned into dinner and Sam again eats way too much.

The trip back to the motel is a silent one; Sam reaches out and puts his hand on Dean's shoulder. Dean looks at it, looks at Sam, but he doesn't say anything.

"I had a good time today," Sam says, when they're stripping down to sleep.

Dean nods. "Yeah. That Natalia, man; she's smart as a whip. She knows more ways to kill a werewolf than _I_ do."

Sam smiles.

In the morning, he wakes up to the smell of coffee, sweet and thick, the way he likes it. He opens his eyes to a waxed cup, steaming aromatically on the nightstand. He looks across the room and Dean is sitting at the dinette, feet up on the table as he pages through yesterday's paper, red pen in hand.

Sam lets his head fall back on the pillow, closes his eyes, and smiles.

**Author's Note:**

> The Every Broken Thing universe merges, at this point, into the [Heart 'Verse](http://archiveofourown.org/series/383860), which jumps forward into (an AU of) Sam and Dean's future. If EBT is their sad beginning, Heart 'Verse is their happy ever after. If you're reading this, I hope you'll continue on...


End file.
